Visiting Aunt Christine
by KatCullen
Summary: When Ally Samuels is sent to live at her aunt's house all summer she meets the new boys on the Sandlot and helps them uncover a town myth that, according to them, is as old as the town itself. I suck at summaries, sorry. Read and Review! Rated T to be saf
1. Chapter 1

"No," I said. I was talking to my mom. She had just told me that she was forcing me to go and live with my Aunt Christine for the whole summer! I wasn't going, plain and simple. My Aunt not only lived in a little redneck town all the way across the country, she also still thought I was 7 years old and liked to play with Barbie's. "I am not going to Aunt Christine's. Why don't Joe and Kevin have to go! They make just as much trouble here as I do!" Joe and Kevin are my little brothers. " You know that's not true. They are going to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and they do all that stuff with you because they don't know any better," said my mom. She was lying through her teeth. She had asked my grandparents to take me too, but they said I was too much trouble. We're all trouble, but Joe and Kevin get away with it because they are younger.  
"They do to know better! Kevin is 12! He wouldn't T.P. the bathroom without knowing he could get in trouble, and I'm sure Joe didn't just think 'Hmm? Maybe if I throw this rock at the truck they won't get mad.' I just have to go there because Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't take me. You don't even like Aunt Christine1" I yelled. Nobody liked Aunt Christine. She was annoying. She was married to my mom's brother.  
"Of course I like Aunt Christine. I just don't agree with her child-rearing techniques. However, In this case I think her over-protectiveness may be good for you. It will keep you from getting in trouble," my mom said. She thought that would work? Aunt Christine is so passive I will flatten her like a bug. " Fine, I'll go, but only because I get to ride an airplane. Don't think your little plan is going to work. I'll find a way around this," I replied. I walked up to my room to get packed. I was going,  
but I wasn't giving up this fight.  
Then I had to pack. I hated packing, it was so boring and I didn't like to squish my stuff into a bag. I didn't even have enough bags to bring enough stuff for the whole summer. All I had was a Vera Bradley duffel, a red rolling thing that was so small it could be a carry on, and my school back pack, which was actually another Vera Bradley thing, but a messenger bag. My Aunt Sue bought all Vera Bradley stuff for me. She was always making attempts girl-ify me, but not annoyingly. If it wasn't for her I would probably have no luggage. I basically dumped all my drawers into the duffel, put a couple books and shampoo and stuff like that in the rolling bag, then the book I had to read for English next year, my laptop, i-Pod, and chargers into the messenger bag. As an afterthought I stuffed my flip-flops into the duffel, but I knew I'd probably be wearing Chucks or no shoes all summer. "Hey Ally, can you come help me pack?" asked my brother Joe. He was only 8 and didn't know what was appropriate to bring on a trip yet. He always asked me to help, then I ended up doing all the work while he wrestled with Kevin.  
" Fine, but you have to actaully do some of the work this time." I said.  
"O.K." answered Joe. He probably intended on helping, but would end up not just like always. I helped him, then went to bed. I had an early flight. Apparently my mom had decided not to tell me I was going until the day before I had to. Oh joy, this is going to be an awful summer.  
I had to wake up at frickin' 5 o'clock in the morning today. Apparently in order to get to my 7 o'clock flight this morning I have to be there an hour early to get through security. Stupid heightened security. It takes a half hour just to get through the metal detectors. You also can't take food from the airport onto the plane. For some reason I find it less fun when I can't take my Propel on the plane with me. My mom said good-bye to me at the metal detectors. She acted sad but really I'm sure she was happy to be getting rid of me, and Joe and Kevin. We were just trouble for her.  
The guy who checks the boarding passes seemed a little colder to me than to the rest of the people. Probably because my ticket said 'Unaccompanied Minor'. Everyone does that, xcept for the flight attendents who are really nice because they think your scared to be traveling alone. The flgiht was four hours to an airport in Colorado, then a connecting flight to an airport in San Francisco. My Aunt me at the thing that lets people out of the terminal.  
"Hi, honey. How are you?" she asked, and she hugged me. I kind of hugged back, but stiffly.  
"I'm fine, Aunt Christien. How are you?" I asked. I was using what Joe called my baby voice, which I only uused with people I don't know and people I hadn't seen in a long time. I hadn't seem Aunt Christine in a year. " I'm great, thanks. I'm happy to haev you here. The summer has quite boring so far," she said, in a very cheery voice.  
"I can imagine," I muttered. She lived in Boringville, U.S.A. We drove to her town, New Milford, CA. It was small, it probably only had 1,000 residents. My city in Ohio had at least 1,000,000.  
We were driving down Main St. We passed some drug store called Vincent's Drug Store. On Angell Rd., where my Aunt lived, we passed a sort of baseball diamond. There were nine boys playing on it. I thought I might go over there one day. I loved playing baseball. I started learning when Kevin started Little League, and I was pretty good. They probably wouldn't let me play though.  
" Well, here we are," said Aunt Christine as we pulled into the driveway of an old Tudor style house. They had moved from Main St. since the last time I was here. Their old house was small, one of those box-y ones built in the 60's. This one was big and brick and had a tower in the front. We walked in to the kitchen.  
"Where's Uncle Jack?" I asked.  
"Oh, didn't your mom tell you? He is on a business trip until September," she said. " No, she didn't," I said, trying to cover up my annoyance. She didn't tell me on purpose. She knew me well enough to know I wouldn't have gone if I knew I'd be here alone with her all summer.  
"Oh, that's odd," said AuntChristine, oblivious to my anger at my mom. She took me up to my room. It was in the tower. It was actually kind of cool to have a circular room. The walls were plain white with a light green stripe on the top border. There was a wrought iron twin bed, a desk, dresser, and bedside table. The room was fine. Inever expected it to be bad, Aunt Christine was nothing if not a great decorator. It was only eleven here because of teh time change so I went downstairs to have some lunch. So far it was okay here, but it was only a matter of time before I got into trouble and ruined everything. I always ruined everything by getting in trouble. 


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up the next moring at 5:00. I didn't intend to wake up that early, but with the time change it felt like 8:00 to me. I knew Aunt Christine wouldn't be up. The only person I know who gets

up at 5:00 when they don't really have to is my grandpa, but he's old and goes to bed at 8:00. I sat in bed for what felt like all day but was really only an hour. Then I started to get really hungry and

decided if Aunt Christine didn't want me wallking around her house at 6 in the morning she would just have to deal. I got myself some Life cereal out of the cabinet. It was the only thing in there that had

even a small amount of sugar on it. After I spent about 10 minutes trying to find the bowls then another 10 eating my cereal, I decided to go walk around New Milford. I remembered to leave Aunt

Christine a note so she wouldn't call in the National Guard if I wasn't in my bed when she woke up.

I put my Red Sox hat on and walked outside. I'm sure there aren't any real Sox fans here, just the ones who jumped on the bandwagon when they won the Series, but oh well. It's not like there

are many Yankees fans here either. Angell Rd. is pretty short, and I soon realize that if my track team had practice here we would have to had to run the same path multiple times to get the usual distance

run. I was walking down Main St. and went into Vincent's Drug Store, which is surprisingly open. It reminds me of the UDF we have back home, but more inviting. It doesn''t have that store chain feeling

like UDF. I bought some Juicy Fruit and a baseball since I doubted Aunt Christine had one. She despised all forms of excercise and Uncle Jack prefered hockey. I explored a little more and noticed

Vincent's probably served as the main source of food in New Milford. Good to know. This way I could be sure not to piss off the manager so he wouldn't ban me. I accidently did that at the Kroger in my

city. Now if I want to buy junk food without my mom knowing I have to go to UDF or Giant Eagle.

I was walking back down Angell Rd. and those boys were out playing baseball again. I was going to walk over there, but thought better of it. I know they woulddn't let me play because I'm a girl,

plus even with my note Aunt Christine was probably freaking out. I walked back down the street and sat on the porch for a while. It was really nice out, considering it had been raining for 5 days

straight when I left home. I missed dry ground and not having my hair poof up from humidity every time I went outside. When I finally decided to go inside, I found Aunt Christine had written me a note

on the back of mine. It said "Hey Honey, thanks for the note. I'm going shopping with my friend in San Francisco today. Have fun! Love, Aunt Christine." OK, so maybe she wasn't freaked out. I bet my mom

told her not to freak if I inexplicably disappeared to nowhere. She'd probably just say check the police blotter. My mom always expects the worst from me.

I ate some Ramen Noodles and grabbed a soda, then walked back outside. I thought that even if I couldn't play with those kids, I could at least see if they were any good. Besides, I would be

playing baseball with my neighbors now, and I was suffering withdrawl pains. I walked across the street and started to watch them play. There were nine guys. The pitcher seemed really good, and there

was anoter guy who hit at least a double every time he was at bat. Most of the time he hit triples. After a while they noticed me standing there.

"Hey, dude, who's the girl?" the shortstop asked. They all looked over at me, and I just stared back at them.

"I'm Ally," I said, since it seemed obvious they weren't going to say anything. "I'm staying at my aunt's house across the street." Still nothing. It was actually kind of funny becase there were

really crickets out.

"You're a girl," said the 2nd baseman, who seemed smaller than the others.

"Oh, wow, thanks for the update. I never would have guessed that," I said. The kid stepped back. I guess he was used to girls who just backed away. He probably had some priss of a sister. All the

girls here think they're the like the Cali girls they see in L.A. but are really hicks just like their parents.

"Hey, we're just surprised!" said the pitcher defensively, "Shouldn't you be at the mall or something?" He asked. 'Great, stereotypical,' I thought bitterly. I wasn't even going to try to play with

these guys if they weren't going to be civil.

"Yes, the mall, my favorite place," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. They looked at me, again at loss for what to say. Apparently kids here have never been exposed to sarcasm. Patheic

losers.

"What are you doing here anyway?" said the pitcher, who had apparently gotten over his shock at the fact that I'm a girl. I guess it never occured to him that girls don't just spend all their time

at the mall spending their parents money when they could get the same jeans at Plato's Closet for ten bucks instead of 40.

"I wanted to see if you guys were any good," I said matter-of-factly. They looked shocked again, like a girl shouldn't know anything about baseball.

"Why do you care, girls can't play anyway?" said the 2nd baseman, who seemed intent on establishing his reputation as an ignorant ass.

"Right. Here, give me the bat," I said, talking to the big hitter who was standing at home looking impatient to get back to the game. He handed to me.

"Dude, what are you doing?" the 2nd baseman, officially a jack-ass, asked him.

"Giving her the bat," he said, like it was obvious, which it was.

"If you get me out, I'll levae and never come back and I'll admit girls can't play baseball. If I get at least a single, you have to let me play,"I said, half to the pitcher half to the 2nd baseman.

"You're on," said the pitcher. He threw a curvebal first, which was way outside. That was good. I was planning on getting a full count then slamming it. Unless he throws a lollipop. Then I'll just

hit a homer and get it over with. He threw a knuckleball, I swung late in purpose. The 2nd baseman was starting to snicker, so I decided to just hit it. Change up, fly ball right behind the center fielder.

Pathetic as the kid looked, I saw out of the corner of my eye that he didn't catch it. Then he dropped it and I went to 2nd. I win. 


End file.
